Thursday, March 11, 2010

Creationists have always done and said bizarre things, but the true story behind today's "Creationists Gone Wild" post is almost bottomless in its weirdness-- combining sex on videotape, extortion, Holocaust denial, evolution denial, anti-Semitism, beautiful models, plans for global conquest, cocaine and designer fashion. In the Lamp's previous post, we added a brief update mentioning the sex slavery and cult behavior practiced by a major creationist organization, but this infinitely weird story has many more levels of weirdness needing exploration. So we're off to Turkey, where an extremist Islamic sex-slavery cult has been instructed in person by American Christian creationists in their most effective fundamentalist techniques for marketing religious fanaticism.

And now we bring you...

Creationists Gone Wild! The Turkish Edition.

Christian fundamentalists in the US are now so effective at marketing superstition that American creationists are exporting religious fanaticism to the Muslim world. American creationists helped Islamists duplicate their anti-evolution pseudoscience, Darwin-Hitler comparison nonsense, and conspiracy theorizing. Yes, the way KFC in Beijing uses the same "secret herbs-n-spices" recipe as the KFC in New York. Except, less chicken, more Hitler.

Oh, and the Turkish creationist franchise is run by a cult leader with a yacht, sex slaves, cocaine, and the absolute power of Internet censorship over evolutionary scientists.

This story has been told in bits and pieces in many diverse sources. I'll try to summarize in one place the very strange, but true, story of Harun Yahya, the BAV and the Institute for Creation Research: the coerced sex on videotape, the draconian Internet censorship--and of course, the loony assertions that Darwin inspired Hitler [1,38] (coming from, who else, anti-Semitic haters and Holocaust deniers, naturally.)

The Turkish anti-evolution organization called the BAV was founded in 1991 by Adnan Oktar, whose pen name is Harun Yahya, and who has the status of a major public "intellectual" in Turkey [9]. He became infamous in the West in 2006 when he sent copies of a huge book, The Atlas of Creation, to thousands of universities and academics around the world--a tome filled with beautiful illustrations and hilariously stupid creationist arguments claiming to disprove evolution [2,33,34]. The book was presumably very expensive to print, yet given away in vast quantities for free, the sources of funding still mysterious.

His status as a cult leader and the sex slaves/concubines were not widely known at that time (but his intense anti-Semitism has been widely known since the 1980's and 90's.) Anyway, the story gets exponentially weirder from there.

The story of Oktar/Yahya, the BAV and the ICR underlines how Intelligent Design proponents and creationists rush to help any conspiracy theorist or criminal, as long as said criminal is anti-evolution. Even if he is an Islamic extremist already convicted of trying to undermine the secular government of a NATO ally; even if he is literally plotting to put half of Eurasia under Islamic rule and Sharia law [5]. For anti-evolutionists, anything is better than the hated "secularist cult", anything-- even Islamist extremism. Prepare yourself for the wet French kiss of irony!

Turkish creationism did not evolve independently, but was directly assisted and influenced by prominent American creationists, who traveled abroad to instruct Islamists in the best Christian techniques for marketing religious fanaticism.

In Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, the traditionally secular government is far more vulnerable than in America, and religious extremism is far more dangerous.

Turkey has been a secular republic since 1923, but in the 1980's the military government introduced more religious education, in an attempt to counterbalance feared left-wing influence. This included compulsory religious education and a conservative version of history taught in public schools [11]. The government sponsored translation and distribution of American anti-evolution books from the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), such as the state-sponsored translation in 1985 of Scientific Creationism by Henry M. Morris. Morris was the founder of ICR, and is often called the father of the modern creationist movement [9].

Enter Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pseudonym Harun Yahya. Since a stint in a mental hospital in the 1980's, he had been building around himself a cult based on Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Semitic hatred and constant conspiracy theorizing about Jews and Freemasons [5].

In 1991, he formed the BAV, an Islamist group called a "cult-like organization that jealously guards the secrets of its considerable wealth," according to Eurasianet [42]. In English the group is called, ironically, the Science Research Foundation (BAV is its Turkish acronym) [9], although naturally, they do no scientific research at all.

ICR founder Henry Morris had made numerous trips to Turkey while searching for Noah's Ark (mentioned very often in ICR newsletters), and had gotten to know Islamic sects [9]. In 1992, one year after the BAV's formation, John D. Morris (the son of Henry) and Henry's lieutenant and "star" debater Duane Gish visited Turkey and participated in a creationist conference [11, 24]. The BAV has had many contacts with American creationists [9].

In the 90's, Oktar/Yahya published anti-evolution books that were virtual duplicates of the ICR's. He gave them away for free, and Islamic fundamentalist newspapers such as Akit gave his books away as free promotions [9], sources of funding still mysterious.

In 1995 Adnan/Oktar published another anti-Semitic book (not his first), The Holocaust Hoax, claiming that the Holocaust never happened and Jews lie about it [15].

Meanwhile, throughout the 1990's, Islamic fundamentalist parties in Turkey were on the rise. "The main aim of one of these fundamentalist parties (known as the Welfare [Refah] Party), as stated many times by... party members in public talks, was to establish a theocratic and Sharia-based state(as in Iran or Afghanistan)through civil war and to promote Jihad (religious war)," write Turkish scholars Ümit Sayin and Aykut Kence [9].

In 1998, the Americans returned to Turkey in force, when the BAV held three "international conferences" for them. Along with the returning Duane Gish and John D. Morris, creationists Kenneth Cumming, David Menton, Michael Girouard, Edward Boudreaux, and Carl Fliermans were prominent speakers [11,25,31,32].

Shown here: ICR speakers and BAV members at the second of three BAV conferences, sitting above a giant banner displaying the name of Yahya's cult in Turkish. This conference had six American speakers and one Turk: shown (from left) Ibrahim Tuncer (BAV), John Morris, Edward Boudreaux, Duane Gish, Altug Berker (BAV), Carl Fliermans, David Menton, Edip Keha and Michael Girouard. Istanbul, July 5, 1998. [31,32]

Both the ICR and Yahya's BAV publicized these conferences widely, each for their own purposes. Oktar/Yahya trumpeted them as proof that the "scientific world" took him seriously, describing the speakers as "well-known scientists from the US" (not true), and he still publicizes them [31,32]. By appearing at BAV conferences, the Americans lent Yahya's cult an air of international legitimacy, and assisted him in falsely presenting himself to the Muslim world as a globally important intellectual.

The ICR publicized these conferences in 1998-99, implying they had a winning strategy for converting Muslims to Christianity [12,24,25,26].

The American creationists were not bothered by Oktar/Yahya's intensely anti-Semitic books-- nor by his hatred of George Washington (we'll get to that in a moment). To be fair, the Americans probably didn't know about The Holocaust Hoax at that time; but Oktar/Yahya's conspiracy theorizing is so constant and psychotic, they should've known they were playing with fire.

But the American creationists also weren't worried about assisting a foreign religious extremist group dedicated to destabilizing the secular government of a NATO ally. That they did know they were doing, and that part was deliberate. US creationists knowingly did everything they could to assist the BAV in marketing fanaticism, conspiracy theories and and hatred for secular government to a NATO ally and to the rest of the Muslim world.

John D. Morris admiringly described the BAV's huge finances in 1998:

"As a group, they have access to more than adequate financial resources, as well as to the media, and are able to blanket the country with creation information. They choose to invite international creationists for their publicity value, but especially welcome Christian creationists in the ICR mold rather than those who hold merely an anti-Darwinian stance." [12, emphasis mine.]

In interviews, Oktar/Yahya has shown that he cannot get through a single conversation, not one conversation, without launching into loony conspiracy theories about Zionists and Freemasons. He looks like a James Bond villain, for crying out loud. Would you trust this school dropout? At left: Oktar/Yahya on his opulent yacht.

Harun Yahya has now allegedly written 300 books, most presumably ghostwritten or plagiarized by BAV members. A former member of the cult describes how they got their dogma by copying it directly from US creationists:

There is a group of followers who are commissioned to write the [Harun Yahya] books. For every book, they will take a few key sources written by Christian creationist authors, mostly from the US. They plagiarize the chapters and paragraphs that agree with their creationist approach. Then they add the photos, a few ayat [verses] from the Koran, and sometimes a bit of a commentary. None of the ideas belong to [Adnan] Oktar. [5, emphasis mine.]

The Islamists nearly duplicate the names of American creationists' websites and books. American creationists have the website Kids 4 Truth, aimed at children. Harun Yahya has website Truths for Kids.Creationist Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis fame, wrote a book subtly titled The LIE: Evolution, illustrated with crude cartoons of biased anti-God scientists. Harun Yahya (or his ghostwriters) wrote The Evolution Deceit.

Let's look at an example of how Christian fundamentalism is duplicated by the Islamists.

Who's the real source of the theory of evolution? Is it... Charles Darwin? Nooo! Could it beeee...

Behind both groups of evolutionists [theistic and nontheistic] one can discern the malignant influence of 'that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world' (Rev 12:9). As we have seen, it must have been essentially the deception of evolution which prompted Satan himself to rebel against God, and it was essentially the same great lie with which he deceived Eve, and with which he has continued to "deceive the whole world". [Henry M. Morris, 13, emphasis mine.]

Satan! says Henry Morris, founder of modern US creationism. On many occasions Henry Morris told elaborate Lovecraftian horror tales of his own invention about Satan thinking up evolution before time began, then teaching it to Eve in the Garden or giving an "evolution seminar" to wicked king Nimrod inside the Tower of Babel.

Now let's ask Islamist Harun Yahya the same question.

[The year 2009] will actually turn out to be a worldwide celebration of Darwinism’s collapse. People will be stunned at how they believed in Darwinism. They will be amazed at how they were taken in by such a hoax for years. They will also be astonished at themselves and at how hundreds, thousands of universities around the world and hundreds, thousands of professors backed such a hoax, and how they were deceived by Satan's plot. [14, emphasis mine.]

Right-o, Satan did it, ooga booga. Note another similarity: creationists have always, always been predicting the imminent demise of the theory of evolution. Yahya/Oktar predicted that evolutionary theory would collapse in 2009. It didn't. And Henry Morris' quote is from his book The Twilight of Evolution, describing the theory being on the way out, in the year...wait for it... 1963, the year the Beatles invaded America. (See also Glenn Morton's hilarious list of predictions of the imminent demise of evolution dating back to 1825(!))

Taner Edis describes the Christian fundamentalist influence on the Turks: "The arguments presented... are very similar to ICR's; indeed, ICR remains the most important source of material for Turkish creationists... Hence the Yahya book, while drawing on Muslim apologetic styles, ends up reading like a compendium of classic ICR arguments. All the usual suspects appear, including claims concerning the lack of transitional fossils, the impossibility of functioning intermediate forms, the fraud of human evolution, the unreliability of dating methods... Sounding much like one of its major sources, Henry Morris, the book tells how... scientists got caught up in a long war against God." [11]

Uh, the Republican Party is always telling us that America is in a war against Islamic extremism. And yet, it is our Christian fundamentalists--almost all Republican voters--who are now exporting religious fanaticism to the Muslim world. Well, I guess that makes up for our inability to sell anybody GM cars.

The next step was to threaten, censor and suppress scientists...a point we'll return to.

The Holocaust Never Happened...Now Let's Blame Darwin for the Holocaust

Let's go back a little in time for just a bit of this guy's back story. Where was Oktar/Yahya before American creationists taught him their secret recipe of "herbs-n-Hitler"?

In a mental hospital, building a religious cult around anti-Semitic hatred.

In the 1980's Oktar/Yahya's first book was Judaism and Freemasons, a conspiracy tome that New Humanist calls "a derivative retread of anti-Semitic clichés in the manner of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Here Oktar/Yahya wrote: "The principal mission of Jews and Freemasons in Turkey was to erode the spiritual, religious, and moral values of the Turkish people and make them like animals." [5]

The obsession with Freemasons may seem strange to Western readers, but Masons are associated in the Islamic fundamentalist world with the hated values of the European Enlightenment, like science, reason, antibiotics and the separation of church and state.

On the cover of Harun Yahya's (later) book New Masonic Order (Yeni Masonik Düzen, see left) you can see the Jew-conspiring villain who satanically separated church and state-- George Washington, yeah that George Washington. (He was indeed a Mason.) "Usually the ancient enemies — the Jews... turn out to be behind Masonry, secularism, communism, and just about every godless evil," writes Taner Edis [11].

Note that the Satanic plot pushed by the Jews and Masons is that of sneakily making people atheists, which dovetails perfectly with creationists' (Christian and Turkish) accusation that evolution is an attempt to destroy society by sneakily making people atheists.

After publishing his Jew-Mason conspiracy book, Oktar/Yahya was arrested for trying to foment a theocratic revolution-- a big no-no in Turkey, OK in America. He served 19 months, finally confined in a mental hospital, where he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and schizophrenia. This diagnosis may not have been accurate. A former colleague of Oktar's imprisoned at the same time (1986), Edip Yuksel, wrote that Oktar faked the symptoms to avoid criminal charges, "Which is ironic, since he was indeed... a delusional maniac.” [5]

Even in the mental hospital, Oktar/Yahya was already building a cult around himself. After his release, he targeted rich, alienated young people and recruited them with a heroic vision of courageous, moral Muslims fighting the evil Jew conspiracy.

As a former follower from the 1980's says, "There was a chilling hatred against Jews and Freemasons. The Jews were the people who ruin the world, and we were the good Muslims to fight against them." [5]

(For the record, I am not defining a "cult" here as a group with weird or impossible beliefs; I am defining a cult by its practices: recruiting alienated people as followers, cutting them off from their families and friends, controlling their lives and sexuality, brainwashing, etc.-- practices that Oktar/Yahya's organization clearly does engage in [4,5,30,42].)

His cultic organization methods utilized "the techniques pioneered by messianic gurus like Charles Manson and Jim Jones, and in particular employing the strategies of the Moonies, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Scientology in targeting disaffected but affluent and educated young people, insisting they turn their worldly goods over to the cult," writes the New Humanist [5].

Through the 80's and 90's, Oktar/Yahya's followers were recruiting beautiful people in chic summer resorts, the Turkish equivalent of the Hamptons. When they associated with his group, they were pressured to cut off all contact with family, friends, and all non-group members.

Soli Ozel, a professor at Istanbul University, says that one of his students, a follower of Oktar/Yahya, was a virtual prisoner of his organization. "When she took her exams, two men hovered nearby so she couldn't speak to anyone else," writes Slate magazine. Ozel said the cult entraps young men and women and turns them against their families [30].

The fact that Oktar/Yahya targeted rich, alienated young people presumably does much to explain the huge financial resources of his organization, although its exact funding sources are still mysterious. When the Wall Street Journal asked him where he gets his dough, he only said he had various "commercial activities," adding, "My friends are usually rich people." [29]

According to the Turkish indictment against him, his followers were encouraged to raid their parents' bank accounts and sell their possessions. Perhaps his young acolytes also got their rich parents to invest in his business ventures. "Some followers joined the trail of Turkish investors to Central Asia and set up businesses with the money they had extracted from their parents, with profits routed back to Oktar," writes the New Humanist [5]. At Left: Oktar/Yahya on his yacht.

A defector from the cult said: "Everyone had to be the same. The hairstyle, the shoes, the jackets. It had to be the most expensive brands, like Versace and Gucci, and it had to be exactly how he wanted it to be." [5]At any rate, Oktar/Yahya's next contribution to anti-Semitism was The Holocaust Deception: An Islamic History of the Nazi-Zionist Nexus (also known as The Holocaust Hoax: The Secret History of the Zionist-Nazi Collaboration and the True Story of the 'Jewish Holocaust') [15], published in 1995 and distributed by the BAV in 1996--two years before numerous American creationists like Morris, Gish, Cumming et al. attended BAV conferences in 1998.

(Note the cover photo of Hitler marching beneath the flag of Israel, a nation that did not exist in his lifetime. Although "Zionist-Nazi Collaboration" may sound like a head-whipping contradiction, it's no more of an oxymoron than "Creation Science.")

Chapter II-a of this book is named "A tale called Holocaust and the lie of gas chambers." Those clever Jews and their fairy tales!

According to this book, "What is presented as Holocaust is the death of some Jews due to the tiffus [it's spelled typhus, you idiot] plague during the war and the famine towards the end of the war caused by the defeat of the Germans... the third chapter examines the Anti-Semitic provacations [provocations] deviced [devised, there's a thing called a spellchecker, shithead] by Israel to persuade the Diaspora Jews to immigrate Palestine and the covert relations between Israel and the Neo-fascists after the World War II." [15]

Right, the usual denialist tripe: the Holocaust never happened, the Jews lied about it in order to get more power, blah blah.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Oktar/Yahya apparently changed his tune. He morphed from promoting anti-Semitic hatred, to saying that "Darwinism" is the real cause of the anti-Semitism that he himself was promoting just four or five years previously.

To sum up: the Holocaust never happened, and Darwin caused the Holocaust.

Now you might think, surely Oktar/Yahya cannot deny his previous racism; surely he has to admit it and, uh, apologize or something? No. If you think that, you don't understand that creationism permits instant rewriting of history: natural history, age of the Earth, evolution, the Holocaust, you name it. Oktar/Yahya simply lies his way out of it, audaciously (or hilariously) so.

OK, maybe the book was published; but, Oktar/Yahya now says he didn't write it! No, in 2008 he told the German magazine Der Spiegel a friend stole his identity!

The book, "The Holocaust Lie," is by one of my friends, Nuri Özbudak. It is not one of my books. He published his own essays under that title. [14]

Oh really? Then that's funny too. If he's so shocked--shocked!-- at this racist book published falsely under his name by an identity thief... then why is it that he, Harun Yahya, cited this awful book in his later writings--and listed the author's name as... himself?

If that's not enough, the online bibliography of his book New Masonic Order cites both Holocaust DeceptionandJudaism and Freemasonry ("Soykırım Yalanı" and "Yahudilik ve Masonluk")--that's two anti-Semitic books--with the authors of both listed by Harun Yahya as Harun Yahya [17]. (These links were still working as of March, 2010. And thanks to TalkOrigins.org for pointing this out.)

Just as Oktar/Yahya's anti-Semitic conspiracy theories were unoriginal, so are his current anti-Darwinian conspiracy theories. He who once so casually made up a "Nazi-Zionist Nexus" and a "Zionist-Nazi Collaboration" now, with equal historic accuracy, blames evil on a "Darwin-Haeckel-Hitler coalition."

He can now merge his self-contradictory conspiracy theories into one: he explains that he doesn't hate all Jews, he just hates the "Darwinist Zionists", who are really Darwinists although they don't know it. (But on the other hand, sometimes he still hates the just plain Zionists.)

The Link Most People Will Click On: Sex Slavery and Videotaping

Oktar/Yahya's cult's sex slavery, secret videotaping, and blackmail have been described by journalists who met with current or former cult members, and by the indictment filed against him and 17 followers by the Turkish prosecutor's office, which led to his May 2008 conviction on a variety of charges [4].

An ex-cult member, who defected after seven years in the group, described the sexual hierachy: "There were sisters (bacilar), concubines (cariyeler) and brothers (kardesler), the male members. The brothers were allowed to marry the concubines, while the sisters were all married to Adnan Hodja [`Preacher' Adnan Oktar].” [5] These "marriages" were not legal, but recognized within the cult.

As is common with cults, Oktar organized his followers into rigid hierarchies, with different privileges and rules for different categories of acolytes, and with harsh punishments, including beatings, dealt out for infractions of the rules.

As for the cult leader having sexual rights to all the female members-- this may seem contrary to Islam, but Oktar/Yahya's followers believed him to the Mehdi, the prophesied Islamic messiah [5]. To paraphrase Mel Brooks: It's good to be the Mehdi!

According to the indictment of the prosecutor's office, the sect's women are called "engines", because they are used to recruit new male followers, particularly young university graduates from rich families. The sect's "engines" would promise sex to these men in exchange for their attending parties organized by the cult. The women are forced to have sex, and threatened if they do not comply or if they wish to leave the group. [4]

The female followers of creationist cult leader Adnan Oktar/Harun Yahya who are highest in his hierarchy are called "Odalisques", i.e. imperial concubines. Above, the Grand Odalisque by Ingres.

"Women who get involved more deeply in the group pass from the level of `engine' to that of `Odalisque', the same title that the concubines of the Ottoman sultan received," writes the Spanish newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya [4; in Spanish].

Oktar/Yahya's followers have been, for some time, limited to oral and anal sex only [5].

"Girls practiced oral sex with designated boys. S. E., one of the victims, said that she had to have sex with 16 men. While practicing sex, they were recorded by hidden cameras and the tapes were delivered to Oktar. The girls who want to leave the group were threatened with exposure of the pornographic tapes," says the dossier of the prosecutor's indictment [4]. (The dossier was quoted by the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet.)

Of course, the videotapes could also be used to blackmail the wealthy and influential men with whom they had sex. According to the criminal indictment, "young girls were lured into sex parties with the promise of being admitted to the group, but ended up having to perform sexual acts with men of influence... The encounters were filmed and used to coerce the men in question to act in the group’s interest. In witness statements, the models Tugce Doras and Seckin Piriler give detailed accounts of how members of the group treated them as “sex slaves” and how Oktar and his followers compelled them to perform oral sex and other sexual favours," writes New Humanist [5].

The defector from the sect who described the group's "sisters" and "concubines" also describes their punishments: "I know personally that Oktar beats the sisters." [5]

And there were drugs. One former follower of Oktar/Yahya said: "We had something to please everybody: Ataturk [nationalism], namaz (prayer), creationism and, if need be, cocaine.” [5] (He refers here to Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Republic of Turkey.)

In 1991 Oktar was arrested for cocaine possession, but later acquitted [29]. He claims a security agent put cocaine in his kabob, and he was framed "Because I'm fighting against Darwinism, communism and other terrorist organizations." [30]

The model Ebru Şimşek, a onetime sympathiser, spoke out publicly against him, and said she had refused Oktar/Yahya's sexual advances. In retaliation, Oktar/Yahya's followers filed three hundred defamation cases against her in court, and a barrage of faked nude photos of her were made public [5,37].

Attack of the Anti-Darwinian Thought Police

After ICR speakers attended BAV conferences in 1998, more than 2000 university professors and scientists and the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA) signed a pro-evolution and pro-science declaration [9]. In response the BAV has spearheaded an escalating fundamentalist campaign of censorship, defamation, intimidation and threats directed at scientists and academics.

The BAV named scientists and organizations that taught evolution as Maoists, communists, atheists and separatists, in huge numbers of flyers that the BAV mass-mailed and faxed to all branches of the Turkish government, military and police. On their flyers, the BAV included photographs and names of some scientists, calling them "Maoists" [9]. Turkish professors say they were harassed and threatened [10].

On Dec. 2, 1998, when the prominent Islamist newspaper Akit "published the names of the signatories of the TUBA [pro-evolution] statement on its front page, suggesting they trespassed against Islam, this had overtones of an invitation to violence," writes Taner Edis [11].

Akit also published the addresses of scientists, and names and photographs of scientists who gave lectures on evolution, and accused them of spreading atheism [9].

In parliament, fundamentalists also proposed massive government book-burnings. "In February 1999, a representative from the fundamentalist Virtue Party proposed a Bill of Anti-Evolution to ban teaching of evolution in the schools and to collect and destroy all the books about evolution in the official libraries," write Sayin and Kence [9, emphasis mine].

By 2005, Umit Sayin, one of the libeled professors, said that scientists were more afraid than ever: "There is no fight against the creationists now. They have won the war... Today, it's impossible to motivate [any scientists]. They're afraid they'll be attacked by the radical Islamists and the BAV." [10, emphasis mine.]

As a result of this campaign, creationism is taught in high school biology textbooks, and most Turkish parliament members consider evolution a hoax [10].

Sayin added, "Evolution is presented [by the BAV] as a conspiracy of the Jewish and American imperialists to promote new world order and fascist motives ... and the majority of the people believe it." [10, emphasis mine.]

In 2005, the Ministry of Education removed five schoolteachers from their posts for teaching evolution, and they were forbidden to speak to the media about it [42,43]. The Minister of Education refused to reinstate the teachers [43] and is openly pro-creationist [42].

Oktar/Yahya is less influential with the new Islamically-oriented government than he was with previous Islamist parties. However, his organization uses the courts to enforce Internet censorship on a vast scale, by filing many hundreds of libel cases to silence anyone who criticizes their American-made antiscience and/or cultish behavior.

In 2007, Oktar/Yahya got Turkish courts to block the entire Wordpress.com platform--more than a million individual blogs--throughout all of Turkey, by filing suits against some critical Wordpress blogs [6]. In 2008, a libel complaint by Oktar got all of Google Groups, a discussion group website, blocked in its entirety [7].

In 2008, Oktar/Yahya got the courts to block the websites of scientist Richard Dawkins and of the Turkish Union of Educational and Scientific Workers, when they pointed out his ridiculous scientific errors [2,33]. Oktar/Yahya claimed their scientific criticism was defamatory, so their websites were blocked throughout all of Turkey [7,40].

In 2009, the editor of one of the nation's prominent science journals was fired by officials from the Islamically-oriented government, because the magazine planned to put Darwin on its cover for the 200th. anniversary of his birth [44,45].

Adnan Oktar, with perfect irony, complains of a vast dictatorship that suppresses all dissent-- by evolutionists! The Internet-censoring bigot agrees with Ben Stein in Expelled and countless American anti-science thumbsuckers:

Darwinists have established a dictatorial regime. The great majority of people are afraid to raise their voices under pressure from that dictatorial regime. [3]

Kenneth Cumming of the ICR in Istanbul to help promote an Islamist extremist cult and its sex-slaving, blackmailing, anti-Semitic cult leader, 1998. On the podium is the name of the cult group [32].

"Only 13 days after the [9/11] act of terrorism on New York, [PBS] delivered a different, but another event of grave importance that was witnessed by millions of Americans—a [TV] special entitled Evolution. PBS...televised one of the boldest assaults yet upon both our public schools with the millions of innocent school children and the foundational worldview on which our nation was built. These two "assaults" have similar histories and goals. The public was unaware of the deliberate preparation that was schemed over the past few years leading up to these events. And while the public now understands from President Bush that, "We're at War" with militant Islamics around the world, they don't have a clue that America is being attacked from within through its public schools by a militant religious movement of philosophical naturalists (i.e., atheists) under the guise of secular Darwinism.... Evolution is PBS's assault that's coming to your children's classroom—not soon but now." [Kenneth Cumming, 2001. 27, emphasis mine]

Uh, so just how was Cumming defending the "foundational worldview on which our nation was built" when he spoke three years before at an Istanbul conference promoting an Islamist cult-- a cult that teaches that the villainous George Washington, the American Founding Fathers, Freemasons and conspiring Jews are to blame for evolution, Nazism, Communism, Zionism, and all other evils? Cumming (see 1998 photo) had promoted this Islamist cult and legitimized the ICR's and the BAV's creationist conspiracy theories, the accusation that science pushes atheism, mistrust of the West and hatred of secular government in general, helping spread these to the whole Muslim world.

Now, what are the results of the actions of these George Washington-hating, secular government-hating, science-hating, conspiracy theorist creationists?

More terrorism. You were expecting devilled eggs?

The name of a particular BAV conference at which Cumming spoke was "The Collapse of the Theory of Evolution." In 2008, the BAV would give a very similar conference with almost exactly the same name, "The Collapse of Evolution Theory", this one hosted by the London Islamic Society--a group led by the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab until 2008 [35,36]. Later--Christmas, 2009-- Abdulmutallab would try to blow up an airplane en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, using explosives in his underwear.

The Islamic Society has posted BAV creationist videos also called "The Collapse of Evolution" on its website [46], and has had a history of hosting talks by clerics who promoted violence [36].

But the BAV and American creationists like the ICR are not bothered; they agree in equating terrorism with Darwinism [14].

Oktar/Yahya is the most famous creationist in the Muslim world, with a reach that extends far beyond Turkey. In many Muslim countries, the BAV has held creationist conferences similar to their conferences with the ICR. Reuters news service, in an extensive profile, called him “one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world.” He controls a vast publishing empire that has published 300 books and many documentary DVD's. His books, audio books and DVD's have been translated into fifteen languages and given away for free throughout the Muslim world.

Considering all this, it is not surprising that the toxic ideas of Oktar/Yahya, which he copied from Americans like Kenneth Cumming, have spread throughout the Muslim world, and have become increasingly important to militant extremists. The terrorists' favorite theory of origins right now is creationism.

In Nigeria, there is a terrorist sect called Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sin." The Western education that most offended them appears to be evolution theory and Earth-is-Round theory. The sect's leader was Mohammed Yusuf, who "had discounted Darwin’s theory of evolution, claimed the world cannot be round because the Quran does not say that, and credited Allah with creating rain," writes the AP [47]. In a July 2009 attack, Boko Haram followers led by Yusuf, and armed with guns, knives and machetes attacked civilians and police, leading to a bloodbath that left 700 people dead, including Yusuf himself, who was killed by police [48].

Another Islamist creationist in the Muslim Brotherhood is Zaghloul el-Naggar, a spiritual mentor of Osama bin Laden, who, like Harun Yahya, pushes creationism along with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories [49].

But Oktar/Yahya tells us, no worries, all terrorists by definition cannot believe in God, so they are all Darwinists:

...if some people commit terrorism using the concepts and symbols of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the name of those religions, you can be sure that those people are not Muslims, Christians or Jews. They are real Social Darwinists.... the root of terrorism that plagues our planet is not any of the divine religions, but is in atheism, and in the expression of atheism in our times: “Darwinism” and “materialism." [41]

Adnan Oktar/Harun Yahya defends terrorist ideologues and global Jihad

The ICR would no doubt rationalize their involvement with Oktar/Yahya's cult by saying that he is, officially, against terrorism. Bull. His words, like those above, do not mean he is against terrorism. In the Muslim world, it's a common trope to claim to oppose terrorism in principle, while actually supporting it in practice--many just redefine the words: like Oktar, they redefine "true Muslim" so no terrorist can be a true Muslim; and then say it's the Americans and Israelis who are the real terrorists. In the Muslim world, you can say you're against terrorism, while actually meaning you're against America and the Jews.

Oktar/Yahya is always talking about love and peace, and about how "Darwinism banished love from the world." But when Oktar/Yahya's cult says that they're for "love" and against violence, what does it mean? He teaches that you should hate "Zionist" Jews, "Darwinists", the West, secular government, etc. because, in his scheme, they are atheist, materialist and thus anti-"love."

Furthermore, Oktar/Yahya approves of the radical statements of Sayyid Qutb and Abul Ala Maududi. Sayyid Qutb was the chief ideologue and theorist of the current wave of global Islamic terrorism, and he passionately hated America and the Jews. His books were the main influence on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Like Oktar/Yahya, Qutb and Maududi also presented their ideas as love and benevolence toward all mankind-- both thought it was loving and benevolent to use jihad to force the whole world to live under Islamic Sharia law. Here, Oktar/Yahya praises their faith:

I have read [Qutb's and Maududi's] books carefully and have not seen anything encouraging terrorism and violence. I believe that they were very sincere Muslims and true believers. [50]

Oh really? Sincere and true, eh? Here's an excerpt from Qutb's magnum opus, In the Shade of the Qur'an, wherein he goes on, and on, and on, about the treachery of the Jews:

The Muslim world has often faced problems as a result of Jewish conspiracies ever since the early days of Islam... History has recorded the wicked opposition of the Jews to Islam right from its first day in Medina. Their scheming against Islam has continued since then to the present moment, and they continue to be its leaders, nursing their wicked grudges and always resorting to treacherous schemes to undermine Islam. [51]

Feel the love! Now here's Maududi:

Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam... Islam requires the earth—-not just a portion, but the whole planet... the objective of the Islamic ‘Jihād’ is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule.

Love you back, big guy! This is faith, according to Adnan Oktar.

Oktar/Yahya now calls for establishing the Turkish-Islamic Union, a proposed super-Ottoman Empire and so-called "Union of Love" that, according to his dream maps, would include most of Africa, most of India, all of Israel, Palestine, huge parts of Siberia, all of Armenia, Georgia, Bosnia, Albania, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, all of Central Asia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Narnia, Oz, Atlantis, Never-Never Land, and Middle Earth.

If Oktar/Yahya is against terrorism, this raises the question of why he has made creationism so popular with extremists. The GMBR also describes Oktar/Yahya's influence and the growing popularity of creationism: "Mr. Oktar’s works are often promoted on websites belonging to global Muslim Brotherhood organizations... Other Brotherhood organizations are promoting “Islamic creationism” such as the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) which recently featured an exhibit from Turkey’s Creation Museum and whose website promotes the works of Mr. Oktar." [55]

The Institute for Denial Research: None of This Happened

Although the Institute for Creation Research did publicize their participation in the Turkish conferences in the 1990's [12,24,25,26], they now deny ever working with Harun Yahya, the BAV, or the Turkish government. Lawrence Ford, a spokesman for the ICR, "denied in an e-mail that his organization had worked with the Turkish government or Islamic creationists," wrote the Boston Globe in 2009 [52].

Since the ICR says they never worked with the BAV [52], this photo cannot possibly show (from left): not BAV member Ibrahim Tuncer, certainly not John Morris (ICR), nor Edward Boudreaux (ICR), definitely not Duane Gish (ICR), nor Altug Berker (BAV), absolutely not Carl Fliermans (ICR), nor David Menton (ICR), nor Edip Keha (BAV) and of course not Michael Girouard (ICR) working together in Istanbul on July 5, 1998 [32]. Perhaps they were playing gin rummy.

Uh, if they never worked with the BAV or the Islamically-oriented Turkish government of the 90's, then what were they doing in the photograph to the left-- water skiing?

For real scientists, when you give a talk at a conference, it's work, and your boss pays you-- or your research grant pays for it. But what does "working" mean to a creationist? And if they weren't working, who paid for their air flights and their hotels-- themselves (if on vacation) or the ICR?

The ICR also sent an email to a Christian fundamentalist blog denying involvement with the BAV:

"There is no official affiliation of ICR with Harun Yahya... and/or with the Science Research Foundation [BAV], founded in 1990 by Harun Yahya; nor has there ever been such an official (or unofficial) affiliation.

ICR desires to bring the creation-science message to those who invite its speakers to give the scientific reasons for the authorative [sic] account of the Genesis creation, with no political or doctrinal agreements attached." [53]

This photo cannot possibly show Carl Fliermans of ICR working with BAV spokesman Altug Berker (left) because the ICR did not work with the BAV in Istanblul on July 5, 1998 [32] or at any other time or place, says ICR [52]. Perhaps they are playing Pictionary.

Presumably, "with no... agreements attached" means that they don't mind preaching creationism to anybody-- but do they really mean "no agreements" required at all? So by their policy, it's OK to teach new conspiracy theories, and the idea that Western science pushes atheism, to absolutely anybody-- even a sex-slavery Islamist anti-Semitic blackmailing conspiracist cult-- and it's OK to tell the whole Muslim world that this cult leader is a real scientist, and that this tripe is cutting edge science? Do they really mean they would preach anywhere? How about a racistChristian IdentityKlan rally with Klan Christian crosses on the podium?

At any rate, the second ICR email above might be technically accurate, using the common definition of "affiliation", but they make no mention of working with the BAV in the 1990's, as they clearly did.

Searches of the ICR website as of 2010 turn up references to conferences in Turkey, but no references to Harun Yahya, the BAV or the Scientific Research Foundation. One of their 1998 articles, John Morris' "Creation evangelism in Turkey" [12] has disappeared from ICR's website and archives. I contacted the ICR asking how to purchase or access this article. Bruce Wood, their communications liaison, kindly wrote me back, saying that the article is "out of circulation." He did not know why, but speculated the disappearance might be related to protecting the anonymous author of another article [26].

On the other hand, Oktar/Yahya and the BAV to this day give credit to the American creationists for helping the BAV defeat "Darwinism" in Turkey [44] and still publicize their links to the ICR [31,32]. Oktar/Yahya, not one known for humility, crows that he now has a bigger media empire and a far higher profile in the Muslim world than creationists do in the West, and the one-time student has now become the teacher [44].

Carl Fliermans of ICR standing before a BAV banner, 1998 [31]. The ICR says they never worked with the BAV [52]; so perhaps he is singing karaoke for the anti-Semitic Islamist extremists.

Do we have to talk about Harun Yahya's "scientific" claims? It's creationis. Will you be shocked to learn that his "science" is stupid and full of hilariously obvious errors?

In his Atlas of Creation, he juxtaposes photographs of ancient fossils against photos of what purport to be modern animals of the same species, claiming over and over again that each individual fossil, by itself, shows that change never happens, thus refuting evolution. His photos are largely of untraceable origins, but some of them are hilariously wrong.

Most infamously, Oktar/Yahya included photos of a "modern" caddis fly, a mayfly, and a spider, supposedly the same as their ancient fossils trapped in amber.

But the modern animals had indeed evolved new appendages: metal fishhooks, clearly seen in the photos of the caddis fly and mayfly, because they are artificial fishing lures. The spider also evolved a lot of threads sticking out, because it is a fishing lure tied from thread [59].

As Dawkins pointed out, in other photos, Oktar/Yahya mistakes a sea snake for an eel (totally different animals, as snakes are reptiles, but eels are fish); and three times Yahya mistakes tube-dwelling annelid worms for crinoids (as different as two animals can be--protostomes vs. deuterostomes.) [2,34]

So, basically, Oktar/Yahya's argument is "there used to be long thin animals, and there are still long thin animals. Thus no evolution."

He also confuses a starfish with a brittlestar, and a bark beetle (scotylid) with a pentatomid (shield bug.)

As mentioned previously, when Dawkins and the Turkish Union of Educational and Scientific Workers pointing out his errors, Oktar/Yahya accused them of defamation and got Turkish courts to ban and block their websites [7,40]. He also proceeded to lie, quite audaciously.

Adnan Oktar: I used a plastic model of an animal in one place in the Atlas of Creation. This person [Dawkins] then made a huge fuss, as if he had discovered something... Since the plastic model is identical to a picture of the living life form in question of course I can use whatever I wish... I have led that person [Dawkins] to take the bait. This is the only subject he criticizes. I deliberately put the hook. There was a hook there, clearly visible. I put the insect on the hook and he went for it. [61, emphasis mine]

Oktar/Yahya later quietly edited the online version of the Atlas of Creation to remove the offending photos without retraction [33], and instead of thanking the scientists who pointed out his mistakes, he got their websites banned [7,40].

Oktar/Yahya also includes hilarious diagrams of what he thinks evolutionary theory requires "transitional fossils" to look like: crude monstrosities. He says evolution requires a starfish to evolve into a vertebrate fish, with the transitional state as a monstrosity with two fish-tails (two backbones?), no head, and three starfish arms (p.20). Another diagram shows a baby crocodile morphing into a chipmunk, one inch at a time, starting at the head and ending at the tail (p. 41). For the record, real evolutionary theory forbids this junk; methods like cladistic analysis are used to identify and predict transitional species that are functional and non-monstrous.

But let's suppose that all of his photos had been correct. So what, Oktar/Yahya has no explanation for why fossils of certain species appear only in some eras and not others. He can't explain, for example, why "fishapod" transitionals like Tiktaalik only appear after fish appear and before all fossil reptiles; why reptile-like mammals such as Megazostrodon only appear after reptiles, and before all modern mammals; why there are fossils with reptilian and mammalian characteristics, in which the reptilian jaw bones are step-by-step evolved into mammalian ear bones; why ape-to-human transitional species like Australopithecus afarensis only appear after primates and before all human fossils; why the brain sizes of hominids increase slowly and gradually from Australopithecus to Homo erectus and Homo sapiens; or why human and chimp DNA are 98.4% identical including in largely non-functional regions; and blah blah blah. Nor can any other creationists explain such things.

While Oktar/Yahya has been interviewed by Western journalists many times, no one ever seems to ask him scientific questions, or even interesting questions, like: "If there's no evolution, then why are there no fossils of Homo sapiens from more than two million years ago?" Or: "You say Darwinism banished love from the world. By 'love', do you mean raping your sex slaves?"American Creationists on Censorship and Harassment of Scientists: "Great! Congratulations! That's the Point!"

The ICR is perhaps the oldest creationist groups in the world, and they look it. The future of creationism belongs to the dumbed-down "science iz eezy" cheerleading and arrogant "presuppositional" theology of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham and his giant Creation Museum.

But the ICR/BAV debacle was caued by an ideological blindness and intense hatred of amorphous "secularism" that is common to creationists in general, and warps all their judgment. They're not just scientifically incompetent, but morally obtuse.

In 2005, the Kansas State School Board determined to add intelligent design/creationism to to the school curricula. One of the prominent proponents of Intelligent Design was Missouri professor William Harris. When a reporter from a Kansas City paper told Harris of the BAV's harassment of biologists in Turkey, he replied "Great! Congratulations! I mean, that is the point, once people start to see science more objectively." [10, emphasis mine]

Harris' definition of seeing science "objectively" includes censorship, harassment and threatening scientists, calling them Communists and transgressors of God.

Harris had submitted a list of "experts" to testify to the school board about the scientific validity of ID, and put on his list a spokesman for the BAV, Mustafa Akyol [10]. Akyol is a journalist whom the pro-Intelligent Design Discovery Institute recommended as a scientific "expert" and helped to bring to Kansas [44]. The BAV spokesman was flown to Kansas at the expense of Kansas taxpayers, simply because of his religion [10], since the BAV proves that not all doubters of evolution are Christians.

More recently, Yahya/Oktar received fawning coverage from the Discovery Institute's website, Uncommon Descent [3]. Even after Oktar/Yahya's harrassment and libelling of scientists, his vast campaign of internet censorship, his conviction for making criminal threats--even after his sexual enslavement of followers and blackmail were detailed in the press [4]-- there is no mention of any of this, nor scientific questions either, in Uncommon Descent's scientifically empty puff piece [3].

And beggars can't be choosers. So ID anti-evolutionist Denyse O'Leary treats the school dropout and rapist cult leader Oktar as a scientific authority; yet she asks him no scientific questions at all. She tosses him non-science puff questions that are carefully calculated to elicit the responses that fit Intelligent Design's story line, like this question:

The conventional wisdom offered by many media sources in North America is that doubts about Darwin are a product of American evangelical Christianity in the deep rural South...Unless I have lost the plot, your doubts could not stem from that culture. [3]

Yes, you have lost the plot, and that's exactly where he copied his ideas, you idiot! What will she ask the sex-slaving anti-Semitic rapist next-- "What's your favorite color?"

When commenters point out what O'Leary left out of her puff piece--his scientific bull, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, etc.--O'Leary's amoral response is: "I was aware of all the issues raised above, but that is a matter for a subsequent story." [3] As of April 2010, she wrote no such story.

As for Mustafa Akyol, the BAV spokesman whom the Discovery Institute helped bring to the Kansas school board [44]-- the president of the DI, Bruce Chapman, says that Akyol "broke with [the BAV] in 2003, sharply disagreeing with many of its views, especially its link to anti-semitism." [57] This date is false; Akyol was a spokesman for the BAV in 2005 [10] when the DI helped bring him to Kansas [44].

(In 2009 Akyol described a break with Adnan Oktar, and he "now think[s] biological evolution is an established fact." [58])

In 2008, after a long, protracted, complicated legal struggle, Oktar/Yahya and 17 of his followers were convicted of a variety of charges, including founding an organization for illegal purposes and making threats, and sentenced to three years in prison [4,5].

His followers had the usual creationist explanation for overwhelming but inconvenient evidence: "It is a conspiracy: the Masonic lodges in England and France ordered the lodge of Turkey to stop the activities of Oktar with the help of the judges, who also are communists and Freemasons," said a spokesman for one of Oktar’s foundations. They will appeal the decision of the Masonic communist judges [4].

And Now, The Piercingly Insightful Sociopolitical Analysis

The ICR's most famous debater, Duane Gish (shown here at a BAV conference in 1998) would often end his debates with evolutionists by accusing his opponent of not believing in creationism, only because they wished to avoid being morally judged by God.

But what about the creationists' desire to avoid judgement? What about the desire of Gish, John Morris, Ken "terrorist assault" Cumming, and the ICR that the consequences of their actions in promoting Islamist extremism not even be discussed?

Sure, some people will defend the American creationists by saying "they didn't mean to help an evil cult-- it just happened." Presumably, no one currently at the ICR deliberately promoted terrorism against Americans, anti-Semitism, sex slavery, or some other misdeeds of Oktar/Yahya and the BAV; and presumably ICR members were unaware of Oktar/Yahya's widely distributed anti-Semitic books, hatred of George Washington, sex slavery, yadda yadda (but they sure know now.)

But we also know most drunk drivers don't intend to run over people. But they're still responsible when really bad judgement leads to terrible but forseeable consequences.

What do you expect to happen when foreigners in suits and ties give PowerPoint presentations, use science jargon, and tell Muslims that merely by believing-- just by following their gut feeling, their faith, whatever--they already know more allegedly "cutting edge, 21st. century science" than those lying scientists? You get religious supremacy, chauvinism, bigotry, intellectual laziness and extremism. You were expecting devilled eggs?

The distance between their goals, and the outcome of their actions, is vast. Islamists now boast that ideas copied directly from the ICR are now being used to convert people to Islam, according to imams who use Harun Yahya's ICR-cloned books for conversion, like this Australian imam:

[Harun Yahya's] books represent some of the most well researched... refutations of Darwinian theory available, and have proven to be most useful in our work in propagating Islam to non-Muslims. [62]

Ooh, that's gotta sting! How could this happen? How could a bunch of old white guys who probably loathe Islamic extremism, chauvinism and supremacy, wind up helping it out so much?

The creationists' judgement of the BAV was apparently clouded by several factors. First, "secularism", the amorphous bogeyman that separates church and state, and that prevents taxpayers from paying fundamentalist preachers' salaries, is regarded by fundamentalists (Christian and Muslim) as a primeval satanic horror. Their hatred for the "secularist" bogeyman is so intense that they believe almost anything is preferable to the explicitly stated intentions of the American Founding Fathers.

Second, creationists have a limited ability to recognize crackpots like the BAV, because they swim in a sea of crackpots. A normal person would know there's something fishy about an organization that calls itself, in English, the "Scientific Research Foundation" but doesn't do any research at all [9]. But the ICR can't judge, because, well, they call themselves the Institute for Creation Research, and they don't do research, either.

The founder of the ICR, Henry Morris, claimed in his writings that: light and radiation from distant stars and galaxies, millions of light years away, was created 6,000 years ago in outer space en route to Earth. Craters on the Moon, Mars etc. are the results of space battles between Satan and Michael's angels. Astrology is true, in a way, because evil spirits associated with distant stars must have participated in human battles. UFO's are demonic visitations. And that's just part of one creationist's writing. Asking creationists to know when they're surrounded by crackpots is like asking a fish to recognize when it's wet.

It only took a heartbeat for Harun Yahya to figure out that creationists had stripped all meaning from the words "scientist" and "research institute", and that nowadays anybody can say they're doing "scientific research" just by endlessly repeating, over and over, the same two lies--"There are no transitional fossils" and "Hitler was inspired by Darwin neener neener"-- in front of less-educated audiences.

Thanks to the ICR, Muslim creationists went from "The Holocaust never happened" to "Darwin caused the Holocaust" in about five years. The fake "Darwin-Hitler" connection [1,18,19,20,21,38] is now central to both Christian and Muslim creationism--and in the Muslim case, it leads directly to "all Islamic terrorists are really atheists."

This historical revisionism is not just ironic, it's dangerous for us. Extremists and supremacists rewrite history to support the belief in their group's collective superiority. When members of their groups commit horrible historical crimes, history must be rewritten so the crime is falsely assigned to people outside the group. Once you've done that, the farthest conceivable extremism on your side cannot be evil or criminal, by definition.

The fake "Hitler was inspired by Darwin" story, which lets all Christians off the hook, even Martin Luther [1,21] and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, morphs into "Islamic terrorists were inspired by Darwin", which lets all Muslims off the hook, even Sayyid Qutb (whom Oktar/Yahya admires [50]) and Osama bin Laden.

So Oktar/Yahya can tell us that terrorist by definition cannot be Muslim, and are Darwinist by defintion:

"...all the members of terrorist organizations -- even those that portray themselves as Muslim organizations... they are all Darwinists." [14]

There is no functional difference between Oktar/Yahya's rewriting of Islamic history, and the fake "Darwin-Hitler connection" cooked up by Christian bigot writers--specifically Richard Weikart, author of From Darwin to Hitler, and Benjamin Wiker, author of the absurdly titled Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists--both employed by the Discovery Institute. (Weikart shows up in Ben Stein's move Expelled to school Stein in his evidence-free historical theories.) They are one-trick ponies. Their trick is to redefine "Darwinism" so that it means the same thing as racism and/or the violent competition for survival--not its scientific definition-- thus making Hitler a "Darwinist" by definition; and they redefine "Christianity" so that it supposedly always regarded human life as sacred.

This bull is no smarter nor dumber than when Harun Yahya redefines "Darwinism" so all terrorists are "Darwinists", and defines "True Muslim" as someone who cannot be a terrorist by definition. (If evolution were given its scientific definition, none of these hacks could refute it scientifically.)

And it has the same purpose: Harun Yahya, Richard Weikart, Benjamin Wiker, D. James Kennedy and the whole "Darwin-Hitler" antihistory squad all want to expunge their religious traditions' long history of contributing to prejudice and violence, thus making modern-day religious fanaticism look harmless and safe. It isn't.

Diogenes, I assume that you are an atheist. This would then mean that you assume there is no moral law or good & evil. So, in your post you are assuming that these people are doing evil.. correct? So you are assuming there is a moral law, and therfore a God. Basically, your post makes no sense and is self-defeating in the atheist sense. Thats what is so funny about you atheists. Your anti- anything God dribble is terrible logic in the 1st place.

Anonymous #3:I assume you believe the Bible is literally true. If you assume the Bible is literally true, how can you condemn genocide, mass murder, rape, infanticide and slavery as evil? Because God orders all of those in the Bible [see citations below.]

Anonymous, your post makes no sense and is self-defeating in the Biblical literalist sense. That's what is so funny about you Biblical literalists. Your Biblical literalism contradicts its own presuppositions, and is thus self-refuting.

If you believe the Bible is literally true, you have no logical basis to condemn mass murder etc. when God's people are doing it to God's non-people.

Ken Ham's creationist god did not invent good & evil. Philosophical daoists, Confucianists, Mohists, some vedic sages, Zoroastrians and Stoics all had advanced *internally consistent* philosophies of good and evil. You do not have a copyright on good and evil. In fact, the "Logos" in John's gospel was ripped off from the Stoics. You're ripping off other people's copyrights.

Good and evil do not belong to you.

In Mohism, genocide and slavery are forbidden consistently. It's not OK when God's people do it to God's non-people. Aggression and dictatorship are forbidden in philosophical Daoism (compare with Romans 13, used to defend tyranny for 2000 years, and today.) The Stoics condemned slavery 1400 years before Christians realized it was bad.

Creationism exists because fundamentalist Christianity does not emphasize the importance of honesty and intellectual integrity, as many other philosophies do. Zoroastrians taught their kids to tell the truth always, not just when it helped the faith. It's your tradition's lack of emphasis on honesty that is the problem here.

Anonymous #2: First, your off topic. Evolution does not deny God, and neither does this article.

Second, a moral code does not require God. We don't not murder because we fear God, we do it because it feels wrong. If the concept of divine retribution is the only thing keeping someone from comitting murder, that person is a sociopath.

Evolutionary theory can be applied to reason about why murder--and other moral values--are right or wrong. In this instance murder invokes the chance of earthly retribution and threatens the survival of tribal communities.

We also have other behaviours that evolution seems to have favored. For instance, tribalism. It explains why you--a God fearing man/woman--would side with a extortionist, sex slave, idea censoring cult. Because you identify with them on the grounds of creationism.

Taking sides with members of your group is instinctive. It also trumps logic.

Hi T. Cook! Good to see you here. You appear at Conelius' blog sometimes, am I right?

=== T. Cook: "... tribalism. It explains why you--a God fearing man/woman--would side with a extortionist, sex slave, idea censoring cult. Because you identify with them on the grounds of creationism. Taking sides with members of your group is instinctive. It also trumps logic."======

Hear hear! It explains why creationists like the ICR, and Intelligent Designers like Uncommon Descent and the Discovery Institute, instinctively take the side of Harun Yahya's creationist cult. Their tribalism and group loyalty is stronger than their conscience, sense of decency, or integrity.

Hi Diogenes, its good to be here. I really appreciate what you and the other commenters are doing when you speak up against Creationism and Intelligent Design. The way they they accuse "scientists" of an organized conspiracy while themselves conspiring against good science with disregard to any logic or evidence scares me. I don't want to wake up with these people in charge of my life telling me what to think. Keep up the good work.

"I assume that you are an atheist. This would then mean that you assume there is no moral law or good & evil."

why? there's a fascinating bit of non-logic in there somewhere ... are you assuming that all moral law must proceed from some ultimate reality in order to be valid, or that atheists are secretly believers who declare themselves atheists to escape from what you presume the dictates of that ultimate reality to be? both are tropes i've encountered in fundamentalist apologetics that might explain your statement, but both are rather false.

i enjoy reading your entries btw. you should post more often--i almost gave up on checking this blog again due to lack of updates.

I knew this man, and I know he is a pure sociopath. Void of any feelinfs, deviant sexual behavior and religious fixation, this is one of the people that consumes oxygen, which otherwise would feed many plants and other living organisms that feed nutrition for the earth. This man is pure evil, in body.

Mirrored at WordPress

All Diogenes' Lamp blog posts are currently mirrored at WordPress, another blogging service. If you have a WordPress ID, it may be easier for you to make comments there. All my Posts are identical here and at WordPress, but comments are not mirrored.

Because this is a new blog, we'll see which version gets more visitors/comments, then keep the popular one and delete the other.